Westwood Schools Get High Marks On State Report Card

WESTWOOD, MA - The Westwood Public Schools received high marks as the state's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released its 2021 school and district report cards Wednesday.

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the district surpassed the state average in areas including advanced coursework and access to classes in the arts.

The report card provided a detailed analysis of subject areas, attendance records and behavioral patterns to compare schools and districts rather than focusing solely on MCAS test results.

Nearly all Westwood High School graduates, or 97.9%, completed the MassCore program of studies. This curriculum includes four years of English, four years of math, three years of a lab-based science, three years of history, two years of the same foreign language, one year of an arts program and five additional "core" courses. This number compared with 83.2 percent of students statewide.

One indicator of future success for students is their ability to pass the ninth grade. The survey noted that in Massachusetts, students are four times more likely to graduate from high school if they pass all of their classes in their freshman year. In Westwood, 96.3% passed all their courses, compared with the 75.8 % state average.

From grades K-5, all students participated in arts classes, with 85.6% of the total student population of 2,914 taking courses including visual arts, music, theater, dance and general arts. The statewide average is 77.5%.

Attendance remained constant over the past three school years despite COVID-19. In 2021, the percentage of students in attendance actually rose an entire percentage point from 96.6% to 97.6% in 2020.

The four-year graduation rate dipped slightly in 2020, going from 98.1% to 97.1%. This surpassed the state rate of 89%.

In 2020, the rate of graduates attending college upon graduation fell from 94.6% to 87%. However, the state's averages were at least 20 points lower, with 72.2% graduating in 2019 and 64% graduating in 2020, respectively.

"The school and district report cards from DESE show how a strong foundation in the Westwood Public Schools helped students to navigate through a difficult year," said Superintendent Emily Parks Wednesday. "We anticipated that the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic would have an impact, and we were happy to see that data on student attendance and behavior, and performance on assessments, remained fairly stable."

The district's MCAS test results also remained steady, with 25% of students exceeding expectations in both 2019 and 2021. Half of the students met expectations in both years.

Statewide MCAS rates fell from 42% to 38% meeting expectations over the two testing periods. Students exceeding expectations went down from 10% to 8%, far lower than Westwood.

"On the academic front, we have reviewed MCAS data and identified key content areas at certain grade levels where we can focus efforts on improvements," Parks noted. "We also recognize that the hard data is not the whole story, particularly when it comes to students' mental health and well-being. Our main focus this year has been on building district capacity to support our students in these very critical areas."